Maley, Willie

Personal

Fullname: William Patrick Maley
aka: Willie Maley, William Maley
Born: 25 April 1868
Died: 2 April 1958
Birthplace: Newry, Ireland
Signed: May 1888
Position: Half-back
Debut: Celtic 5-2 Rangers, Friendly, 28 May 1888
Internationals: Scotland / Scottish League
International Caps: 2 / 2
International Goals: 0 / 0
Player-Secretary: 15 May 1894
Reinstated amateur: 13 Aug 1895
Secretary-Manager: 3 Apr 1897
Retired: 1 Feb 1940
Tenure as manager: 43 years, (3 Apr 1897-1 Feb 1940)
Successor: Jimmy McStay

Biog

William “Willie” Patrick Maley (born Newry, Ireland, 25 April 1868–April 2, 1958, Glasgow, Scotland) was the first manager of Celtic Football Club and one of the most successful managers in Scottish football history. He led Celtic to 30 major trophies in 43 years as manager.

Although Maley was born in Newry Barracks, where his father was a soldier in the British Army, his family moved to Scotland when he was young. As a young man, Maley was much more involved in athletics than in football (SAAU 100 yards champion June 1896), although he had played a few games for Cathcart Hazelbank Juniors in 1886 and had played with Third Lanark A.C. from later that year.

Playing days
In 1888, he was signed by the fledgling Celtic and became one of the club’s first players as a midfielder. When John Glass and Brother Walfrid made the visit to the Maley family home in Cathcart in December 1887, famously Tom Maley (Willie Maley’s brother) wasn’t home that evening (out impressing a young lady) but the Celtic party ensured their trip wasn’t wasted by recruiting Willie Maley – a move which of course had massive repercussions on the development and success of the club for decades to come.

Tom Maley was their original target, but by chance or fate Celtic landed with the indomitable Willie Maley. Possibly it was divine intervention, as the story is told that it was on their way out that Brother Walfrid was to turn to Willie Maley and say: “Why don’t you come with him?” and a true personal Celtic connection was formed which endured for over half-a-century. Few other words have had as big an impact as those ones.

As a player he played his part but was possibly limited in his abilities, with the publication ‘Scottish Referee‘ describing his ability as being “Too modest to shine on the field where he always seems to be holding himself in reserve“. Possibly it was his limitations as a player that helped to fuel his drive to succeed greater as a manager.

His first taste for top level football was with Third Lanark for whom he played prior to Celtic. However, it was at Celtic that he made his name and was said to have been a stand-out in the Scottish Cup final of 1892 (Celtic’s first), for which his mother must have been proud to read of (as she used to have to walk down the road each Sunday to get the papers to find out the score). In those early days, it was about winning all competitions as possible and the local trophies (Glasgow Cup and others) were as important, with Willie Maley a main player in those early days, helping to build up the name of the club.

Despite any criticism of his playing ability, the national team selectors deemed him worthy of a place in the national side. Due to spending a considerable amount of his childhood in Scotland, he earned the right to play for the Scotland team, and won two caps in 1893 against England and Ireland (country of his birth). Maley also represented the Scottish League in another match.

Whilst many came & went over those first years (some to clubs in England for good salaries), Maley remained at Celtic for most of the time with the odd sortie away. In 1896, he even made a single appearance for Manchester City in a Second Division match against Loughborough, where his brother was to later become the manager and a leading light for the club. Celtic though was were his heart ultimately was, and it was there he made his name as a player and then to be as the club’s first manager.

Manager
His stature & loyalty did not go unnoticed, and in 1897 the board of Celtic directors appointed Willie Maley, at just 29 years of age, as Secretary-Manager – the first manager – of Celtic, a sign of progress and evolution for the developing club. It was to be a great appointment from the start, as he took the team on to win the League Championship for the club in his first full season as manager. An incredible achievement and set the ball rolling for the club and set the benchmark for the near and thereafter.

Despite being the manager, Maley never worked with his players in training, he preferred watching games from the directors’ box and never indulged much in team talks or spoke to his players at half-time or post-match. Maley would not even announce the team: players learned if they were in or out through reading the line-up on the noticeboard or even in the newspaper. People shouldn’t get the wrong impression. Willie Maley worked tirelessly for the club. He devoted huge amounts of time to developing a network of contacts and following players. Contract negotiation was heavily reliant on the work of men like Maley who could easily be tempted away.

Celtic had been a buying club in their opening decade, spending heavily to bring professionals to the club. Maley decided to scrap that and rely almost entirely on recruiting youngsters fresh from junior football. The effect of this (unintentionally or otherwise) was that Maley was then able to mould a team in the way he liked to see football being played. He instilled therefore ‘The Celtic Way‘ in practise on the field by taking the players from cradle to grave at the club, fathering them and building them both as athletes and as people. In practice, it was Willie Maley who put into play on the field Brother Walfrid’s ethos.

The curious point about Maley is that despite having been one of the old Brigade that laid the ethos of the club and more than any of them put it in practise, he himself did not subscribe to everything that was the general viewpoint of the supporters or his fellow administrators at Celtic. Having been born into a British military family, he was very sympathetic to the Royal establishment, being very proud on those opportunities when he met their members. Having been a supporter of home rule for Ireland, he did chide fellow adherents to that cause in later years for certain aspects to their beliefs and their behaviour.

Like Celtic Chairman John McLaughlin, he was also quite sympathetic to the armed forces. A contentious viewpoint in what was then a turbulent time, especially in contrast to a Celtic support who were far from sympathetic after the events in Ireland and the tragedies of the First World War, but it is a measure of the man that he could think of his own views yet also respect those stances of others which differed from his own, else he may have had difficulties working alongside certain people at the club.

Willie Maley was simply practising as he preached, his mantra was clear:

“It’s not the creed nor his nationality that counts. It’s the man himself.“

As a manager, his greatest skill was to build teams from scratch and then to rebuild another in time, using his skills to spot young talent for the squad rather than be spendthrift. He used to openly take pride at his ability to be frugal in his choices for the squad. He liked to state how he built his teams with minimal cost, preferring to breed young players and bring them through, something that definitely the boards from early on used to their benefit and possibly got too overused to.

Willie Maley’s First Golden Team (1900s)
His first great side came in the first decade of the 1900’s. Maley formed & reared a young team who together won six league titles in a row between 1905 and 1910, and won the first Scottish League and Scottish Cup doubles in Scottish footballing history (a clean-sweep of the two major titles, the League Cup wasn’t around then). It was regarded as the finest team in world football, and the six-in-a-row record remained unbroken until the 1970s. The stars of that side included right-back Alec McNair (“the Icicle”); inside-right Jimmy McMenemy (“Napoleon”); and the centre-forward Jimmy Quinn, all greats. They played wonderful football and were a major light in the growing game.

On a personal level, one of the most memorable moments for Maley came in 1904, when he and his brother Tom guided Celtic & Man City to their respective glory in the Scottish Cup & FA Cup, it was the first time (and probably the only time) brothers have had such success at the same time in management. It wasn’t the only family footballing connection, as younger brother Alex Maley was to become the manager at various clubs including Clyde, Clydebank, Hibernian and Crystal Palace.

Regardless of all the success, Maley never rested on his laurels and was a pragmatist in football, and when that first great team grew old, Maley proceeded to build his second great team, which included the peerless Patsy Gallacher and the ageless McMenemy. The team won four titles in succession between 1914 and 1917 and set what is still the UK record for an unbeaten run in professional football: 62 games (49 won, 13 drawn), from 13 November 1915 until 21 April 1917 (with the peerless Charlie Shaw in goals). The great feat came also in light of the First World War. Not an easy environment, and Maley was able to hold onto many of his best charges as was wanted by authorities to keep up morale at home.

Celtic helped to keep pride up for the men at home and those with thoughts of home on the front line. Willie Maley was also very sympathetic to the returning men from the war, and those blinded from the warfare were not shunned but Willie Maley encouraged the blinded servicemen to Celtic and in effect began the first system in football to assist the blind, a great service that continues to this day.

That great side won two more titles, in 1919 and 1922, cementing themselves in the annals of Celtic history. The team continued to win further trophies into the 1920s but a decline had begun and it was becoming apparent that it was time to consider a change in the coaching as much as the playing staff.

Maley though was a bedrock & an institution of the club and any many wishing to tackle Willie Maley (be it at board level or coaching level) was taking on a lot. The environment was getting increasingly heated with Rangers stepping up under Struth and abusing whatever influence they could to steamroller over all else. Willie Maley was ageing but he would not budge.

Importantly, Willie Maley’s career shouldn’t be seen as just a list of great honours won by the teams he played for or built. If anything, his greatest success was to be able to rear good young players and then mould the sides into successful units that played great football. With talents like McInally, McGrory and Patsy Gallacher, Maley ensured the fans could come to Celtic and be entertained by the performance as much the results. He also stuck by those others wished to cut short fast. For example, Jimmy Quinn is a legendary player for the club, yet he was one with critics and also with the board wishing to ditch him after an inauspicious start, but Willie Maley saw more in him declaring: “I believed there was in this young collier chap the stuff of which great players are made.”

It showed Willie Maley’s ability to see beyond the short-term, and he coaxed the best out of what was an initially shy Jimmy Quinn. Willie Maley used not only his own stature but also his skills as a physio in helping Quinn out prior to Quinn’s signing for the club to help entice him into the Celtic fold. Quinn never thought he’d make it as a pro but Willie Maley thought otherwise and in time got him to sign for the club. It was a measure of the lengths that Maley would go as a person for the club (and for others), and Jimmy Quinn was to be in debt personally to Willie Maley and the support.

Dealing with a wide variety of characters showed that Willie Maley was a great surrogate father to the squad. Tommy McInally is divisive to historians in his contribution & net worth to Celtic, but there is no denying his talent to entertain and bring out a surprise on the pitch. It wouldn’t have been possible though without Willie Maley, who spent a great deal of time, effort and patience on the often McInally. He was Tommy McInally’s boss on the one hand but a father figure on the other to him, and he played both roles to a level beyond what anyone could have asked of. It spoke volumes of Willie Maley’s character. It showed that he took his position as being more than just a task. Others such as McMenemy, Willie Buchan, Adam McLean, Peter Wilson, Patsy Gallacher and so many others owed so much to him. To illustrate Maley’s spirit on developing players, he once wrote “apples will grow again“, a romantically apt quote illustrating his philosophy on rearing players.

There was a cost to this relationship too. The premature deaths of John Thomson on the field followed by that of Peter Scarff from the same squad is hard for anyone, but Maley was their father at Celtic. He was hurt badly as were all from the John Thompson’s death, but Willie Maley is said to have taken the death of the latter particularly badly. We can only imagine the pain the losses of these two Celts in their prime would have done to Maley. He’d brought them to Celtic and reared them, only to see them die young whilst still under his tutelage. No manager you would hope should ever be put in this predicament but Maley was sadly to face it twice in a short spell.

However, Willie Maley came from an old-school conservative upbringing, and his manner leaned heavily on the heavily formal side. He cared for his players but he had a style that was overly formal if not dictatorial (likely stemming from his family’s Victorian age military background). He could be swift to act if there was any confrontation, especially if money was involved and sadly this did lose the club some good players over the years.

Celtic favourite Malcolm McDonald is said to stay on the trams one stop further in order to avoid Maley as he didn’t believe they would have a convivial chat, possibly a touch unfair but Maley did point out to him unequivocally that: “Now remember Malcolm, if you don’t do as I tell you, you won’t be here.” People used to get out the way when he came down from his office, but this was as much out of respect as anything else. With Maley’s physical stature alone could have frightened any young player.

1930’s onwards
Into the mid-1930s, Willie Maley built his third great team, featuring Jimmy Delaney and Jimmy McGrory. This side won the league title in 1936 and 1938 and the cup in 1937. By then, Willie Maley was approaching 70 . However, this was late on in his managerial career and he was letting things slip badly. In those days, the manager had to do everything and with the game changing rapidly in importance and interest, it was all a shock to the system with coaches like Willie Maley learning on their feet, but there’s just so much that any man can take. Willie Maley in retrospect wasn’t realising it or admitting it. Celtic was his life as he used to say publicly, so possibly losing Celtic was a fear for him.

Those who point to the trophies won in the late 1930’s need to note that Willie Maley was not really the acting manager in that briefly successful period. Jimmy McMenemy was brought in as the assistant manager and in practise became the de facto first team manager. A sharp contrast to the straight-laced Willie Maley, Jimmy McMenemy was relaxed and approachable. Willie Maley was said to have been unhappy with some of the tactical progress put into play by Jimmy McMenemy but came around to it after the success it brought (a sign that Willie Maley was stuck in the past).

However, after Joe Dodds was brought in to assist Jimmy McMenemy, it was a sure sign to Maley that it was time to hang up his coat and badge. The half-centenary season of 1937-38 should have been the best time to step down for Willie Maley but he stubbornly carried on. For a period he seemed to be more caught up writing his book on Celtic than on managing the first team.

The Willie Maley years was to end in a less than happy fashion. With Celtic at the bottom of the table, and after a meeting with the board of directors in February 1940, Willie Maley ‘retired’. Not an easy task for the board as likely many of them looked up to him as much as the support, he was a pivotal player in the rise of the club.

Sadly, there was a very bitter parting of the ways over the tax on a 2500 guineas honorarium. It was meant as a golden handshake but Maley never took the hint and the board hardened their stance by refusing to pay the tax on it. Could have likely been better managed by the board but Willie Maley could be quite cantankerous himself and this all turned unintentionally sour.

Post-Celtic

Maley did not set foot back again into Celtic Park again for 13 years, extraordinary for a man who had lived and breathed Celtic for the previous fifty-two years. Rangers took advantage of the discord and actually invited Maley to be a guest at a Rangers v Celtic game at Ibrox. He accepted the invitation but he was supporting Celtic as much as he ever did.

Willie Maley did make up with the board in 1953 after the death of ex-Celt Patsy Gallagher when chairman Bob Kelly got in touch and a Willie Maley Testimonial Fund match was played between Celtic and a Bohemians select at Celtic Park in aid of the Grampian sanatorium in Kingussie.

Now aged 85, he was enthusiastically greeted back. He was home.

He was to be a frequent visitor to Celtic Park thereafter until his death on 2nd April 1958 in a nursing home at 32 Mansion House Road, Glasgow at 8.30am aged 89. He died of arteriosclerosis and senility.

Willie Maley is the longest serving manager in Celtic’s history, but also holds the longest reign of any manager at any senior club in the UK. In total, in his 43 years as manager, he won 16 league titles, 14 Scottish Cups, 14 Glasgow Cups and 19 Glasgow Charity Cups. It wasn’t the mass of trophies that was most important about Willie Maley, it was his character & ethos. He engendered the moral framework around the club and how Celtic were to work. There is no denying that the club has at times swayed but that has been to Celtic’s cost and the club has always returned.

Celtic have always been a club that emphasises the club’s support and culture, and Willie Maley has played a huge part in this. Any man who questions his importance, just needs to look to Rangers & Sevco fans and the odious ethos that has underpinned their clubs since Struth imposed his disreputable values at Ibrox. Willie Maley embedded the need to respect a man and give him an opportunity to build his character; Struth imposed bigotry and arrogance into Rangers to create their hegemony.

Willie Maley’s name is still proudly chanted in every Celtic gathering; his name titles one of the club’s most sung songs, ‘Willie Maley’ by David Cameron, and it is one of the most popular Celtic songs amongst the support.

His persona, his character and his ethos still underpins to this day what Celtic Football Club stands for, and the support will forever be in his debt to what he brought to the club.

We will always remember him.